Factory Of The Future

Jan. 19, 2007

Get a glimpse now of manufacturing tomorrow.

In Decatur County, Ind., a factory of the future is now in the works.

American Honda Motor Co. Inc. is building a $550 million automobile manufacturing plant on 1,700 acres of land near Greensburg, 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis. The plant, for which construction was announced in June of last year, is slated to begin mass production of fuel-efficient, four-cylinder vehicles in the fall of 2008. The plant is expected to have a capacity of 200,000 vehicles and to employ some 2,000 people.

The Decatur County plant, Honda's sixth auto plant and 14th major plant overall in North America, will boost total North American auto production capacity for Honda to 1.6 million units, expand Honda's total North American employment to more than 37,000 people and increase North American capital investment to more than $9 billion, according to the company.

Honda says the new plant in Indiana will have the same type of New Manufacturing System that Honda has employed in its other U.S. and Canadian auto plants. The hallmark of the system is flexibility, which allows the automaker to produce different models quickly and efficiently. The major processes to be performed at the Decatur plant include stamping, welding, painting, plastic injection molding and assembly.

One of Honda's goals is to make the Indiana plant a "zero waste to landfill" factory, using advanced methods of energy and emission reduction. "Our goal to the environment is not based just on regulations or testing standards," said Akio Hamada, president of Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. and head of Honda's manufacturing operations in North America, when plans for the Indiana plant were announced last June. "Our goal is that this plant in Indiana will have the smallest environmental footprint of any Honda auto plant in North America."

"Honda's success in America has been based on our strong commitment to our customers," added Koichi Kondo, president of American Honda Motor Co. Inc and COO of Honda's North America Region operations. "We believe the great state of Indiana has what we need to continue this success -- an outstanding community of people, excellent transportation systems and the necessary infrastructure to support industry. It is an ideal location in the Midwest both for our network of parts suppliers and as a central location for all our customers across the country."

This spiral conveyor belt is part of Dell Inc.'s state-of-the-art 750,000-square-foot manufacturing plant near Winston-Salem, N.C.Meanwhile, this past year Dell Inc. was touting the accomplishments of a world-class factory of the future that opened in October 2005 near Winston-Salem, N.C. The 750,000-square-foot plant can produce one computer every 2.5 seconds -- and produced its 1 millionth computer in May 2006.

In May 2006, the plant also exceeded its first-year hiring goal of 750 people. More than 1,000 had been hired.

The North Carolina plant, which cost more than $100 million, includes a production layout that allows computers to be tested as its components and software are installed. This "instantaneous build-and-test" operation allows employees to identify and correct any problems immediately, rather than waiting until the product is completed, according to Dell.

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About the Author

John McClenahen | Former Senior Editor, IndustryWeek

John S. McClenahen, is an occasional essayist on the Web site of IndustryWeek, the executive management publication from which he retired in 2006. He began his journalism career as a broadcast journalist at Westinghouse Broadcasting’s KYW in Cleveland, Ohio. In May 1967, he joined Penton Media Inc. in Cleveland and in September 1967 was transferred to Washington, DC, the base from which for nearly 40 years he wrote primarily about national and international economics and politics, and corporate social responsibility.

      McClenahen, a native of Ohio now residing in Maryland, is an award-winning writer and photographer. He is the author of three books of poetry, most recently An Unexpected Poet (2013), and several books of photographs, including Black, White, and Shades of Grey (2014). He also is the author of a children’s book, Henry at His Beach (2014).

      His photograph “Provincetown: Fog Rising 2004” was selected for the Smithsonian Institution’s 2011 juried exhibition Artists at Work and displayed in the S. Dillon Ripley Center at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., from June until October 2011. Five of his photographs are in the collection of St. Lawrence University and displayed on campus in Canton, New York.

      John McClenahen’s essay “Incorporating America: Whitman in Context” was designated one of the five best works published in The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies during the twelve-year editorship of R. Barry Leavis of Rollins College. John McClenahen’s several journalism prizes include the coveted Jesse H. Neal Award. He also is the author of the commemorative poem “Upon 50 Years,” celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Wolfson College Cambridge, and appearing in “The Wolfson Review.”

      John McClenahen received a B.A. (English with a minor in government) from St. Lawrence University, an M.A., (English) from Western Reserve University, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Georgetown University, where he also pursued doctoral studies. At St. Lawrence University, he was elected to academic honor societies in English and government and to Omicron Delta Kappa, the University’s highest undergraduate honor. John McClenahen was a participant in the 32nd Annual Wharton Seminars for Journalists at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. During the Easter Term of the 1986 academic year, John McClenahen was the first American to hold a prestigious Press Fellowship at Wolfson College, Cambridge, in the United Kingdom.

      John McClenahen has served on the Editorial Board of Confluence: The Journal of Graduate Liberal Studies and was co-founder and first editor of Liberal Studies at Georgetown. He has been a volunteer researcher on the William Steinway Diary Project at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and has been an assistant professorial lecturer at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.